New York, September 12, 2017– NexGuard, a Kudelski Group company and the leading provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions, and Marquise Technologies, the developer of high-end post-production solutions, today announced that NexGuard watermarking has been integrated with the MIST mastering solution from Marquise Technologies.

This new integration enables content owners to extend content protection to the mastering phase for cinema and TV releases. This new joint solution will be demonstrated at IBC on the NexGuard stand #1.C81 and Marquise Technologies stand #7.H03.

The Marquise Technologies MIST solution revolutionises the mastering process by offering a uniquely powerful and flexible solution for the creation of any type of masters or file packages, including DCP and IMF from any type and resolution of source media. In addition to multiple formats transcoding, extensive editing and conforming tools, advanced color grading and color management features for ACES and HDR, MIST provides numerous tools to easily create high-end masters and versions for digital cinema, broadcast and online.

“Protecting high-value content is key for our customers, and not only at the final stage. Therefore we are glad to allow them to use NexGuard forensic watermarking plugin directly at the mastering phase for any type of deliverables, including DCP and IMF, whatever the color space, the dynamic range or the resolution are” says Laurence Stoll, CEO of Marquise Technologies.

The joint Marquise Technologies – NexGuard solution includes the following key features for content protection:

Full integration of the NexGuard Manager with the Marquise Technologies MIST: Users of the joint solution can easily scale up their use of forensic watermarking on pre-theatrical content, and store all their NexGuard watermarking job metadata in a centralized database for a 360-degree view of all watermarking activities.

Support for multi-layer watermarking: Up to three levels of NexGuard “G2” watermark layers can be embedded in any given content asset by using different watermarking keys, while maintaining the robustness and imperceptibility of the watermarks. This feature enables watermarks to be embedded at the ingest and outgest of post-production workflows.

Support for RGB 444 video watermarking: NexGuard video watermarking has been optimized for the RGB 444 pipeline, for best processing performances, and robustness and imperceptibility for pre-release 4K and HDR content.

Harrie Tholen, Managing Director at NexGuard, said: “The mastering phase is usually the first time that the finished content product is being shared between a large number of people. It is also at its most valuable because it’s a final product that’s not yet in the theatres or on screen. This is why we are delighted to see our solutions integrated with Marquise Technologies’ MIST to ensure that our forensic watermarking can now protect newly mastered digital content.”

NexGuard forensic watermarking adds a unique, invisible identifier to video content. The watermark remains with the content, even in the case of transcoding, resizing, downscaling, recording by camcorder or any other alteration before illegal re-distribution.

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About NexGuard

NexGuard (www.nexguard.com), a Kudelski company, provides the most widely deployed forensic watermarking solutions in the movie and entertainment industry across the globe. Its technology and solutions protect valuable media content, such as premium entertainment and live sports, against illegal distribution. Follow us on Twitter: @NexGuard and LinkedIn. The Kudelski Group (www.nagra.com) is a global leader in digital security and convergent media solutions for the delivery of digital and interactive content.

About Marquise Technologies

Marquise Technologies designs state-of-the-art solutions for the cinema, the television broadcast and OTT industry. The company addresses post-production facilities and digital film labs and provides them with high-end solutions for image processing, mastering and quality control for Digital Cinema, Broadvast and Online.